Tesla to Run Public Megachargers at 3 Forum Mobility Depots

AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla is putting its Megacharger hardware to work at truck depots it does not own, agreeing to operate public Megacharging at three of Forum Mobility's new California sites. The deal, confirmed this week, is the clearest sign yet that Tesla's Semi charging network is scaling through partners rather than company-owned stations alone.

Forum Mobility, one of the largest heavy-duty charging operators in the United States, is bringing another 30 megawatts of capacity online and sits on reservations for more than 330 Tesla Semis. Tesla will run the public Megacharging at FM Francis in Ontario, plus FM Adeline and FM Coliseum in Oakland, while a fourth depot in Rancho Dominguez is locked up with contracted fleet capacity.

A different model for scaling

Tesla makes the Semi, builds the Megacharger, and now operates the charging at someone else's depot, collecting revenue without managing the real estate. That approach lets the network expand faster than Tesla could on its own. The company sells its Megacharger for $188,000 and takes a per-kilowatt-hour cut on third-party sites, roughly 20 percent below its Supercharger for Business rate.

The hardware runs on the open Megawatt Charging System standard, so it can serve electric trucks from Daimler, Volvo, and Scania, not just the Semi. That openness mirrors Tesla's earlier decision to widen its car-charging network, an approach that has paid off as the accordion-style Supercharger design ships 16 stalls per truck for rapid deployment.

Where the chargers are going

All four Forum depots use pull-through lanes so drivers can charge without unhooking their trailers, mixing new MCS ports with traditional CCS connectors. Forum says its MCS chargers add up to 60 percent of range in about 30 minutes. As Electrek first reported, FM Francis sits in Ontario, the same city where Tesla opened its first public Megacharger station in March.

Forum's depots cluster around Oakland and Long Beach, where drayage trucks haul containers on short, predictable routes that fit battery range well. The operator now counts 25 carrier customers and more than 40 megawatts of charging online or under construction, with future sites slated for the Inland Empire, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago.

Momentum for the Semi

Tesla has 66 planned Megacharger locations on its map, and partner depots like Forum's are how a large chunk of that network fills in. The push arrives as the Semi itself gains traction abroad, following its European debut at the IAA show with a 550 km range.

With freight electrification lagging in North America, the partner model gives Tesla a capital-light way to blanket key corridors with megawatt charging. If the Forum rollout holds to schedule, the backbone for a nationwide electric-trucking network could come together far faster than a station-by-station buildout would allow.